Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/140

130 less hunter, obtained a firm footing and pitched his wigwam permanently at Fond du Lac, or Wi-a-quah-ke-che-gume-eng. He belonged to the Marten Totem family, and the present respected chiefs of that now important village, Shin-goob and Nug-aun-ub, are his direct descendants. Many families of his people followed the example of this pioneer, and erecting their wigwams on the islands of the St. Louis River, near its outlet into the lake, for greater security, they manfully held out against the numerous attacks of the fierce Dakotas, whose villages were but two days' march toward the south on the St. Croix River, and the west, at Sandy Lake. During this time, comprised between the years 1612 (at which I date their first knowledge of the white race), and 1671, when the French made their first national treaty or convocation at Sault Ste. Marie with the northwestern tribes, no permanent trading post had as yet been erected on the shores of Lake Superior; the nearest post was the one located at Sault Ste. Marie, which as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, had already become an important depot and outlet to the Lake Superior fur trade. Their intercourse with the whites consisted in yearly visits to their nearest western posts. The trade was partially also carried on through the medium of the intervening kindred tribe of Ottaways, or by adventurous traders who came amongst them with canoes loaded with goods, made a transient stay, sometimes even passing a winter amongst them, following their hunting camps, but returning in the spring of the year to Quebec with the proceeds of their traffic. No incident which the old men related as connected with the whites, is worthy of mention, till a messenger of the "Great French King" visited their village at Shag-a-waum-ik-ong, and invited them to a grand council of different tribes to be held at Sault Ste. Marie. Some of the words of this messenger are still recollected and minutely related by the Ojibways.